Dr. Lindsey 500 graft repair of skin cancer scar McLean VA

[Dr. Lindsey]

Here is one year followup on this attractive 43 year old that I've known now for about 11 years. She has skin which is a perfect setup for basal cell carcinomas. I repaired several on her face over the years.

Unfortunately she got, in rapid sequence, 3 skin cancers in her left hairline. The first was a large defect which I partially closed, and left the center to heal…not ideal, but since I knew she had 2 more nearby, a local flap, mobilizing lots of tissue was not an option…the dermatologist was going to go after the other 2 in short order.

Shown is her after the first area had healed with a 3cm hairless scar centrally, and with the second skin cancer. This is the very first picture. Note in the second and subsequent pictures that the scar line from the repair of this defect is not even visible and she has hair remaining, albeit in decreased density, along the edge. Her main problem is that first large defect which I couldn’t close fully due to the nearby skin cancers.

At 2.5 years and she remained cancer free in this area so we put hair in the scar. She’s highly educated and knows that long term dermatologic evaluations are her destiny.

Shown are pictures of her case, suture removal, 1 month check, 6 months, and 12 months. She looks pretty good but it may take 18 or more months for results in that central scar. We've done a bunch of these "hair in a scar cases" but her central scar was really just scar tissue on skull bone...very limited blood supply. Her recovery was complicated by someone criminally assaulting her on post op day 4. Fortunately she was ok and the perpetrator was arrested.

I'll see her again this December and we'll assess whether a few more grafts centrally will be needed.

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA